Tossing Apples
by Antosha
Summary: One night, outside the Burrow, Ginny and Charlie Wealey have a heart-to-heart.


Tossing Apples 

Charlie has found four crab apples, up towards the top of the tree, just where it leans over the broom shed. If Bill were here, they could play a round of catch on their brooms up in the moonlit midnight.

But Bill is speaking softly to Fleur in French, and she is answering him utterly without words, and Ron and his girlfriend are giggling like, well, like schoolkids, and Fred and George are snoring like a pair of Welsh Greens, and Ginny really shouldn't be bothered tonight, and Percy never played Quidditch in his life. So Charlie walked downstairs as quietly as he could, went out into the back yard and climbed the tree, not entirely certain why. He fiddles around with a Levitation Charm, zooming the apples around the tree in close formation.

A crack of light spills from the front door and a slight figure saunters out towards the tree and the broom shed. Not Fleur--she was busy. Not Ron's ladyfriend Hermione--the hair's not bushy enough. Not Tonks. No, not Tonks.

Ginny.

Ginny is walking like a cowboy in one of the old films that Tonks loves to watch when Charlie spends the night in her flat.

He shoots one of the apples towards her, hitting her squarely--though lightly--on the forehead.

"Ouch! What the?" Ginny looks around. Another apple hits her. "Bloody hell." She catches the third and fourth apples. "Bleeding berk."

"Nice catch, Gin," calls Charlie.

"Charlie?" she calls, peering around in the gloom. "Oh, there you are." She tosses both apples at him, forcefully, and he catches them, laughing.

"So," he says, "finally got around to playing Hide the Wand with Harry?"

Even in the gloom, he can tell she's blushing. "God. Is it that obvious?"

He puts on a very airy, Professor Trelawney-like voice. "You are glowing, my dear."

"Really?" Seventh child, she peers up at him, testing for the joke.

"Nah. Well, maybe you are, but it's too dark for me to see. Aside from the fact that the two of you looked more interested in eating each other than dinner, the dead giveaway is the fact that you're walking as if you've been riding a broom without a Cushioning Charm for about a week."

Ginny answers this with silence. She shifts from one foot to the other, her old robe barely covering her pale leg to the knee.

"You want to come on up, Gin?"

"I, uh, think I'll stand, Charlie, thanks."

Charlie smiles. "I'll come on down then." He jumps from the tree with a thump. Stepping forward, he kisses his sister on the brow. When did she get so damned tall? "Congratulations."

Her arms crossed, she leans her head against his collarbone. "Thanks. I think."

"Everything okay? Wasn't too disappointing, I hope?" He wraps his arms around her.

"Lord, no. It was" She shakes her head against his chest. "It was amazing. I just don't know what to think."

"I'm so glad. I mean, that it was amazing. My first time wasn't amazing at all."

A sound comes from her, but it is damp and muffled.

"Gin?" Another snuffle. "You crying?" A nod. "What's up? Can I?É I mean, did something happen?"

"Dunno," she wails. "I'm so _happy..." _She sobs loudly into her brother's chest.

"That's, uh, that's great, Gin," he says, patting her on the back. She certainly doesn't sound happy.

"Éand so _scared_, Charlie, God, I'm so scared." High, keening sobs now burst from Ginny, as she collapses against his embrace.

"Oh, Merlin, Gin, I'm sorryÉ I knowÉ Everyone"

A feral snarl boils up from her chest. "Does everyone lie there, watching their boyfriend slowly drift off to sleep, thinking, He really could die tomorrow or a week from now, I'm not just being a silly little girl, and then, if I didn't die with him, I'd have to kill myself, because I couldn't stand to live?" Wet with tears and snot, she still spits the words out with ferocious clarity. "Does everyone think, My love for this boy has gotten me literally possessed once before, and I can feel it happening again and I'm terrified that I'll just disappear?"

"I'm so sorry, Gin." He wraps her spasming shoulders tight. "It's bleeding scary without all that."

"I'm getting your shirt wet."

"No problem. Wet away."

"Why did I have to fall in love with The Bloody Boy Who Nearly Snuffs It Every June? Why couldn't I have fallen in love with someone nice and safe?"

"What, like a dragonkeeper?" He manages to raise a rough laugh out of her. "He's a good kid, Gin. Magic aside, he's a good one." Gently, Charlie strokes her hair. She hiccoughs. "And, I must say, the most brilliant thing Potter ever did was fall in love with you, sis. He's been following you around with his mouth so far open I've wanted to offer him a ruff collar like Nearly-Headless Nick's just to keep his jaw closed." Charlie laughs.

Ginny sniffles again. "I think that's the scariest. That he really might feelÉ He looked at me while we were, you know, andÉ Telling me he loves me, over and over again, crying as he's falling asleep. God, Charlie, what am I going to bloody do?"

He thinks of saying, it's okay, he's just your first, you're not marrying him. But two thoughts occur to Charlie--that they might very well be pair-bonded, like Charlie and Ginny's own parents, like wolves, like Hungarian Horntails; and that even if this is just the first step down a path of exploration for her, telling her it isn't a big deal still isn't a good idea. "Enjoy it," he says instead. "Love him and let him love you. There's nothing you'll ever feel like it. And you won't disappear. You're too bloody brilliant. You're the toughest one of all of us, and that's no joke."

And for a second, his own throat burns, with sympathy, a little, but also with envy. To be where she and Harry are. To be at the beginning of a great adventure together, where the worst thing you fear is that something outside might come and snatch your love away.

She sniffs twice and smears the mess off of her nose onto his shirtfront.

"Hey!" Charlie says, "I said wet, not wipe!"

Ginny giggles, then moans, dramatically. "Lord, I am sore."

Charlie laughs. "I bet. I'd say it'll be better tomorrow, but I've never, uh, deflowered a girl, so I wouldn't know."

"Merlin. 'Deflowered.' What a silly" Ginny leans back and peers up. "Wait, I always assumed you and Phyllida were each other's first."

"Nah, I would have loved to, but she was as pure as the driven snow. Still is as far as I know."

"Really? That explains" Ginny tilts her head to one side. "Who was the lucky girl, then?"

Even in the dark, Charlie knows his cheeks are darkening. "Well, she wasn't so lucky, and she wasn't a girl." He sees her eyes widen. "No, no, that was Bill's bag of tricks, no, it was a female, just not, you know, exactly a young one."

"What the hell, CharlieÉ. You're trying to tell me she was an older woman, is that it?"

He mutters unintelligibly.

"What? Come on, Charlie, spit it out. I know you're tupping the sexiest woman on the face of the earth these days, so who was the old hag?"

"Old hag? You cut me to the bloody quick, Gin." She punches him in the shoulder. "Ouch! It was Rosmerta, okay? From the Three Broomsticks." Rosmerta's face, watching him as the bar empties; he's been sipping away, first at butterbeer, then at mead, then at firewhiskey, waiting for Phyllida to show up, because she had implied she might let him explore a _bit _further

"You're kidding! Charlie, she's"

"About twenty years older than me, I know." He lets loose his grasp on her, and Ginny steps back, but takes hold of his hand. The two crab apples fall into her long fingers.

"That's not what I was going to say, git. She's one of the other sexiest women alive. I think every male student and teacher since Mum and Dad's time has wanted to test the sheets with her." Ginny snorts. "Some of the females too, for that matter."

He lets loose a long, hissing sigh. "Yeah, well, everyone assumes she sleeps with everything that moves, but she doesn't. I think the only regular partner she's had is Hagrid--and you think _you're _soreÉ."

"Ouch!" Ginny barks. "Lord, I'd never thought about" She shivers and looks up at him again, expectantly. "So what happened. You swept her off her feet with tales of Quidditch glory? Charlie Weasley, best Griffindor Seeker of his generation?"

"Nah, second best, luv. I've seen your paramour, he's amazing." He squeezes her hand playfully. "Might have been third-best if you hadn't switched to Chaser, from what I've heard."

"Gwan," Ginny sneers. "So, if she likes Hagrid, maybe it was a nice chat about dragons?"

"Nah, she took pity on me, straight and simple. I got stood up by Phyllie. And I started spilling my guts out about how, you know, frustrated I was. I'd missed curfew already, and I was the last one in the bar. She patted me on the cheek and offered to" Charlie sputters a bit.

"Help you out? Teach you a few things?" Ginny is obviously holding back the giggles that Charlie fears will burst out at any moment. "Merlin, Charlie, I always saw you as so smooth and together."

"So glad I've burst another illusion for you." Ginny snorts trying to hold the laughter in. "I lasted about two minutes. I was so bloody nervous. And so bloody drunk. Took me longer to perform the Contraceptus Charm that Dad had taught me than it did for me to actually perform the act, you know. I passed out right after. I woke up the next morning in her bed. I mean, there she is, naked, in the daylight, this full-blown woman. Smiling. I felt twelve. I was never so humiliated in my life."

"Bet you lasted longer the second time, though." The whites of Ginny's eyes disappear, and her teeth flash in the moonlight.

Now Charlie grins, too. "And the third, and the fourth, and the fifth. She was a very patient, very thorough teacher. She opened the pub a bit late that morning." They both laugh, Ginny until she begins to cry again, wiping her eyes on the only dry part of Charlie's shirt available to her, the sleeves. "Professor McGonagall was livid, but we were playing Slytherin the next week, so I got off light. Tried to get together with Rosmerta again after that, but she said she'd only taken me up because she liked me, wanted to do well by me. That she'd given me what she was willing to give, and for the rest, I'd have to look elsewhere." He stares wistfully up towards the dark windows of the Burrow.

Ginny follows his gaze.

Just as she is about to speak, Charlie looks back down at her. "So, I hope Harry lasted a bit longer than two minutes."

She suddenly softens slightly, her slim, muscular frame bending to one side. "Not much. But I didn't mind."

"Good. Don't get on him about it, even as a tease. He'll learn to take his time." They stand mutely. Funny, Charlie thinks. Haven't talked with any of my brothers like this, not even Ron, who was so full of questions.

"So," Ginny says, very quietly, "have you found it? The rest?"

And this time it is Charlie's eyes that spill over, much to his own surprise. "God, Gin, I guess I have. You were talking about how scary it is--I don't know if it ever gets easier. I need her so much, I love her so bloody much. But she's" How to describe Tonks? "I never feel like I'm enough for her, you know? She's so damned amazing."

"I know," Ginny says, "she is."

"I mean, she's funny as hell, a brilliant witch, even if she does drop every plate Mom hands her to dry. But I feel as if, I mean, there's so much to her, 'her infinite variety.' I don't know how I can possibly fulfill all her needs, and I'm terrified she's just going to get, I don't know"

"Bored? Charlie? Who could get bored of you?" As he shakes his head, she reaches up and wipes the wet from his cheek with the tips of her fingers.

"I don't know, Ginny. _I _get bored with me sometimes. It's just scary, that's all, getting together with someone for laughs, and all, and then suddenly realizing your whole life would come crashing down if she left." He pulls his sister towards him again, feels the solidity of her. "We fight, sometimes, I mean, even you and Harry will some day, right?"

"I can't wait."

"Yeah, well, it's just fighting, all right, it's not a big deal. But we had this big bloody row this afternoon about nothing, about whether we were going to visit her grandfather, the Muggle one, out in Gloucester. And she's yelling at me and I'm thinking, Here we go, this is where she finally walks out. And there was a part of me that was almost _relieved, _you know? Almost wanted to get it over. And then I was suddenly filled with this panic, like, Merlin, I _can't _let her go, and so I kissed her, right there while she was in mid shout." He gives a sad grunt. "Told her I loved her, we'd go wherever the bloody hell she wanted."

Ginny's head rest back on his chest. "Has she ever shown you what she really looks like?"

"Yeah," Charlie sighs. "Tonight. When we make love, she likes to, you know, change, and that's as much as I'm going to tell you because you're my little bloody sister, right? Anyhow, I said to her afterwards, 'I want to see you as you really are.' The face and the body and the hair."

"What did she think of that?"

"That I was a bloody berk. That was the first time someone called me that, tonight, by the way." He tickles her over her right hip, and she yelps. "She did though. Show me. At least, I think she did."

"Was it really different?"

"Nah. The face was more or less the one she always wears, all elfin. The dark brown eyes. And the same long body she usually chooses. But the hair"

"The hair?" Ginny sounds bemused.

"Yeah. It's long, and silky, and jet black. It wasÉ. I don't know. I mean, I told her she was the most beautiful woman in the world, no matter what face or hair she wore. She could look like that Dolores Umbridge or Bellatrix Bloody LeStrange and I'd think she was still the most beautiful woman in the entire world. That I loved her. Lord, she is so beautiful. I don't know why she hides it."

"Bet she started to cry," Ginny says softly.

"Right in one, little sis. Absolutely melted." He smiles down at Ginny. "Awful lot of that tonight. You. Me. Our sweeties." With the wave of an arm, he banishes all tears. "Enough. Come on, Gin. Let's get a cuppa in the kitchen."

They stroll towards the Burrow, his arm on her shoulder, her arm around his waist, she still walking gingerly.

They walk into the kitchen and find Tonks and Harry looking up at them, guilty silence in their eyes. Tonks's hair is long and black. "Want some tea?" Harry asks, holding up the teapot. His face is pale, his voice husky. His eyes are locked on Ginny, where they belong.

"Yeah," Charlie says, grabbing two more mugs and sitting.

Ginny sits slowly, with an almost audible wince. When he looks at her, Charlie realizes that she _is_ glowing, after a fashion. She's carrying an aura of discovery and vulnerability that envelops her like an aureole of pale flame. Like her Weasley hair.

"We've been chatting in here," Tonks says, her usually wry eyes looking slightly sad. "The Order, stuff."

"We were talking about being orphans," Harry says. "How lucky you are to have each other." He smiles at Ginny, and it is an offer, a promise of something Charlie can't quite decipher.

"And about how lucky we are to, to have you too," Tonks stutters, none of her usual jokiness. Her dark, dark eyes, the real ones, Charlie trusts deeply, fix him in their gaze. "So what've you two been up to out there?"

Ginny looks up and smiles shyly, first at Tonks, then at Harry. "Tossing apples," she says, and drops them on the table.


End file.
